Today it takes almost 4-5 years for any disposal of an appeal before Tribunal and in the case of High Court and Supreme Court the period of waiting is as much as 20-25 years. Moreover in case an appeal is set aside the period may double. Even sometimes noticing such delay the Courts hold no effect be given to their order in view of inordinate lapse of time. This is to prevent further litigation though yet such difficulty can be partly made up if one were to take a uniform and consistent approach in any proceedings under the Income tax Act, 1961. Perhaps there is an urgent need to bring in a legislation in this regard to enforce uniformity in assessment and appellate proceedings to discount the litigation immediately.
In revenue proceedings generally a reference is made to the views taken in the preceding years. It is equally important to look at the proceedings in the subsequent years when the successor officer does not chose to make the previous year additions. In such a situation it may be possible to give reference of the subsequent year inaction in the course of any assessment or appellate proceedings. The MP High Court in the case of Commissioner of Income-tax Vs. Bhatia (D.M.) Industry (222ITR482) in this regard held that a view taken uniformly should not be changed without sufficient reason.
In this case it was noticed that the Tribunal has taken an identical view in subsequent years, which has become final. The issue involved deduction of commission paid by the assessee to a proprietary concern of one of the partners of the assessee firm and that the provisions of section 40(b) of the Act were not attracted in the facts and circumstances of the case.
Also in the case of Parashuram Pottery Works Co. Ltd. v. ITO (106 ITR 1)/ AIR 1977 SC 429 it is held that:
” At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the policy of law is that there must be a point of finality in all legal proceedings, that stale issues should not be reactivated beyond stage and that lapse of time must induce repose in and set at rest judicial and quasi-judicial controversies as it must in other spheres of human activity.”